Breaking the Barriers
by Sara Jaye
Summary: Lucy struggles with an internal conflict. Not what you might think.


"Breaking the Barriers"   
by Lucy-Brianna 

This is just a short little piece I came up with during Creative Writing class this afternoon. It's also something you'll need to read all the way through to get. (Don't worry, I didn't have six Frappucinos before I wrote this!) 

~ 

It was a calm, beautiful, sunny autumn day. A gentle breeze blew, stirring the satiny blades of grass. The sky was a beautiful, vibrant, almost crystalline shade of azure blue, and not a cloud was visible to obscure it. It was almost as if someone had spilled a bottle of cerulean ink across the sky, it was so bright, and yet so calming at the same time. Like seeing into the depths of- 

"Oh, jeez." 

Lucy rolled her eyes. The sky was blue, end of story! Waxing poetic on it wasn't going to make the wait for her sister any shorter. She snorted, finding it stupidly amusing how bored she was becoming. Honestly, waxing poetic on the _sky_? It was a sky, what was to talk about? 

She glared at the gym door. Shouldn't Mary be coming outside right now? Wasn't practice over a few minutes ago? Lucy sighed; she'd been waiting forever to get those concert tickets! 

But it wasn't just about tickets...lately, Lucy and Mary had spent so little time together, and Lucy was becoming depressed by it. They'd once been closer than anything. Best friends, two of a kind, inseparable. But lately, they seemed to be growing apart. 

'Hold it! Where did THAT randomly spring up from?' 

"How does someone go from concert tickets to being depressed about their sister not being around much?" 

Lucy shook her head, unable to laugh at how ridiculous this was becoming. She glanced at the few paragraphs in her notebook, then ripped the page out and crumpled it into a wad. 

"Okay, let's try this again," she mumbled, tossing the paper wad into the near-to-overflowing wastebasket. 

_The sky was blue, the weather was warm, and I was bored._

'Oh, jeez.' 

THAT wasn't going to work either, she thought as she crossed it out. That opener was as cliché as "It was a dark and stormy night"! 

"Hmm..." 

Lucy thought for a moment, then wrote: 

_It was a dark and stormy night..._

She snickered. 

"Yeah, right!" She tore that page out of the notebook and crumpled it into a ball. Just then, there was a knock at the door. 

"Come in," she said. The door opened, and in walked her older brother Matt. 

"How's the writing going?" he asked. Lucy smiled crookedly and pointed to the wastebasket. 

"Need me to elaborate?" she groaned, tossing the pen down. Matt laughed sympathetically and put his arm around her shoulders. 

"Poor you. Writer's block really sucks, doesn't it?" he said. 

"Everything just ends up feeling so...cliché!" Lucy sighed. "I want to write something GOOD, something that will make people stare and listen in wonder...something that will paint vivid images in their mind, make them think! I wanna accomplish something with this, something I can be proud to call MY work!" 

"I know what that's like," Matt said. "I can't help you...but I can give you some advice that helped ME." 

"And that would be?" 

"Take a break for a while. Just relax, and think about what kind of story you want this to be-drama, romance, humor, action adventure, mystery, colorful, simple...think about any ideas you have, or see if you come up with any. Then write down some notes," Matt said, handing her a fresh notebook. "See what you like best, and after a while the story will just flow." 

"This really works?" 

"Trust me." Matt smiled. "I'll leave you alone to think for a while. Good luck!" he said, patting her shoulder. 

"Thanks, Matt," Lucy said, smiling. As soon as he'd left, she closed her eyes and began to think. What kind of story did she want to write? 

After ten minutes, she still hadn't come up with anything. 

It was so frustrating, all she could think of right now was this stupid writer's block! 

Then, it came to her like a bolt of lightening. 

"That's it!" 

She grabbed the notebook and pen, and for the next hour, churned out the plight of a struggling writer trying to come up with a hit story, and scrambling to meet the deadline the next day. The thoughts and feelings of the protagonists, the emotions, the drama, the pressure, the suspense...it just seemed to pour from her mind. The pen never once left the page, and when she was done, the story was twenty pages long and had a happy ending. 

Now all she needed was a title. 

"Hmm..." 

Across the top of the first page, she wrote: 

"How to write a miniature novel in just one hour." 

Then: 

"By Lucy Camden." 

Then, she picked up the story and headed to her father's den, getting permission to borrow his computer. 

Fifteen minutes later, she looked at the final draft. 

"It still needs something..." 

Cracking her knuckles, she typed: 

"~Fin." 

NOW it was perfect. 

"It's finished, FINALLY!" Lucy squealed. She printed it out, made it a cover page, and stapled it together. 

The next day, she submitted her story. Two days later, it was handed back to her. 

A crisp, red "A+" adorned the cover page, along with a note: 

"Lucy, you have truly captured the feeling of a struggling author. It almost sounds like you speak from experience!" 

Lucy laughed to herself. Maybe this creative writing portion of English wasn't going to be so hard after all. 

~End~ 

Bet you didn't see THAT coming! XD Well, maybe you did after a while, but still...   
The original idea of this story changed quite a few times: First, it was gonna be a parody of way-too-flowery writing. Then it was going to be an introspective sisterly love piece...then, I got the whole "creative writing" idea. Don't worry, I didn't write this as a "Let's give my favorite characters aspects of my life!" thing. This is something I really could see happening on the show...and Lucy's my favorite character, so she's kind of a muse for me. *nervous smile* Ah, well...this was still an interesting piece to write.   
Also, this takes place around Season 2, for the record. Kinda a useless note, but...oh, well.   
And it feels GOOD to actually finish a fic! XD I barely wrote much for a couple weeks, and it was annoying me. :P This might not be a masterpiece, but I like it. :)


End file.
